Saturday, April 23, 2016

April 23, 2016 - OREGON, UNITED STATES - Crews with the Portland Bureau of Transportation responded to several
sinkholes in the past week, including one on Friday morning that was
discovered at NE 16th and Prescott which closed the intersection for
part of the day.

A hole in the road also closed part of N. Interstate
Avenue near the Broadway Bridge for part of Friday. Crews discovered the
hole earlier in the morning while they were repairing damage to the
storm water system.

Crews also worked to repair a sinkhole at SE Milwaukie Avenue and SE Reedway.

WATCH: Sinkholes popping up in Portland, closing roads.

Dylan Rivera, the spokesperson for the Portland Bureau of
Transportation, told KOIN 6 News the city averages “a few hundred
sinkholes” each year.

“It could be a construction issue, could be a worn out pipe,” Rivera said.

PBOT crews and the city of Portland are investigating the cause of
both sinkholes and Rivera said the wet winter with record rain in
December, combined with the record-breaking heat earlier this week also
contributed to the problem. The source could be anything from leaky
pipes, heavy rainfall or soil disruption from utility companies
installing fiber lines.

“There are a lot of causes for these small
cavities in the street. Fortunately in the Portland area we don’t have
that massive geological movement that’s happening in Florida and places
like that. With massive sinkholes that could fit a house,” Rivera said.

He said Portland gets a few hundred small cavities each year, a minor
number when compared to potholes. So far this year, the city has
patched more than 7,600 potholes. - KOIN.

April 23, 2016 - KOREAN PENINSULA - North Korea has conducted its third submarine ballistic missile
firing, Yonhap news agency reports, citing the South Korean military.
There has been no immediate report on whether the launch was successful.

A submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) was fired Saturday from the Sea of Japan (also known as East Sea) water zone in the open sea direction at about 6:30 p.m. local time (0930 GMT), Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The missile flew “for a few minutes,” Yonhap agency said, citing a military source.

Seoul believes the missile launch was made to make a point in the wake of a key 7th meeting of North Korea Workers' Party in May. A congress of the ruling party has been summoned for the first time in 36 years.The first underwater launch of North Korean SLBM missile KN-11 was made on November 27, 2015, and allegedly resulted in failure.

The next try on December 21 was reported to be a success, with Pyongyang demonstrating its leader Kim Jong-un observing the launch.

The initial information about Pyongyang using an upgraded Soviet-era ballistic missile submarine to establish the naval component of the national nuclear triad emerged in 2014.

It is believed that in the early 1990s North Korea bought from Russia 10 Golf-class diesel-electric missile-capable submarines, also known as “Project 629, designed in 1950s.” It is believed that Pyongyang has made at least one of the seaworthy and now is using it for tasting a sea-based ballistic missile of its own.

The South Korean military suspects Pyongyang of preparing its fifth nuclear test in the very near future, after satellite images exposed that North Korea had resumed tunnel excavation at its main nuclear test site. A similar activity was observed there prior to the latest alleged thermonuclear test in January. - RT.

April 23, 2016 - NICARAGUA - he San Cristobal volcano, also known as El Viejo (the old guy) is the
oldest volcano in Nicaragua. Today, April 22, 2016, the volcanic peak
erupted in 3 large explosions at 10:20 am, 10:22 am and 10:27 am.
Volcanic unrest along the Ring of Fire.

The fire is spreading rapidly along the Ring!After Guatemala, it's now the San Cristobal volcano in Nicaragua that registered three explosions generating a plume of gas and ash.

The cameras monitoring the activity of the volcano (INETER) recorded images of the strongest explosion at 10:27 am today:

The 44kg pit bull breed cross was impounded after biting a newborn child to death in San Diego. County of San Diego

April 23, 2016 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - A pit bull terrier crossbreed dog lying in bed with a San Diego couple
bit and killed their three-day-old son when it was startled awake.

The parents had been watching television at the time with their
newborn and the 44kg (97lb) American Staffordshire terrier-Great Dane
mix was lying with them,said Sergeant Tu Nguyen of the San Diego police child abuse unit.

"The mum coughed unexpectedly and it startled the dog, which bit the
baby, causing traumatic injury," said Nguyen, whose unit investigates
the death of any child.
"The parents were able to separate the dog from the baby and
they rushed him to the hospital but they were not able to save him."

Nguyen declined to say where the baby was injured and said police were
waiting for the medical examiner's report on the exact cause of death.

WATCH: Family dog mauls newborn baby to death.

The dog was taken into custody by San Diego county animal services,
officials said. Any dog that bites a person is placed in quarantine by
animal control, said Dan DeSousa, deputy director of the agency.

DeSousa said the family could direct animal control to euthanise the dog
or they could claim the dog at the end of a 10-day quarantine, but the
agency had not yet received any instructions.

The American Staffordshire is one of a number of pit-bull dog
breeds recognised as dangerous and subject to various breeding and
ownership restrictions in different parts of the world.

A sinkhole that opened up at an apartment complex in Sindorim-dong, Guro-gu, last year. Yonhap.

April 23, 2016 - SOUTH KOREA - Seoul City has discovered 105 underground cavities after four months of high-tech ground inspection.

According to the city government Wednesday, during its inspection of
48-kilometer section of arterial roads previously connected to cave-in
accidents, 105 potential sinkholes were detected.

With an additional 246-kilometer section to be scanned this year, an estimated 195 more cavities are expected be found.

The latest investigation began in the wake of February 2015's sinkhole accident in front of Yongsan train station in Seoul.

Last year, 56 sinkholes were detected in the city.

In the safety inspection that ensued, Ground Penetration
Radar-mounted vehicles scanned the surface, then a portable GPR
identified the exact location of the cavity and then the ground was
drilled open to check the size of the hollow space beneath.

Using this method, On March 28, the bustling road in front of
Chungjeongno Subway Station's exit four was restored just in time before
it sank.

Seoul City said that among the 105 detected cavities, 61 that
appear to be in a critical condition will be restored by end-April.
Another 35 less-severe cases will be restored by end-May. The rest that
do not pose an immediate threat will be studied by urban developers to
learn the cause behind the phenomenon.

According to the city government, the cavities discovered so far were
around decrepit sewer pipes. The city plans to undertake their
maintenance before the monsoon season.

By 2018, more than 200 billion won ($176 million) will be spent to
refurbish the 437-kilometer section of the worn-out 932 kilometer pipes.

Seoul City had borrowed help from a Japanese tech firm with the GPR
technology for this round's safety check. It is currently trying to
develop its own GPR gadgets in collaboration with Seoul's Sejong
University and the U.S.' University of Central Florida.

April 23, 2016 - ECUADOR - A 5.8-magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Ecuador, about 16
miles west of Muisne, a town in the northwestern Esmeraldas province,
the US Geological Survey (USGS) reports.

The earthquake occurred at 01:24 GMT on Saturday (20:24 p.m. local time
on Friday). There were no immediate reports of damages or casualties.

On April 16, Ecuador was hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, with its
epicenter located near the town of Pedernales in Manabi province, which
is situated south of Esmeraldas province. Over 600 people died as a
result and more than 8,000 were injured.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA), over 300 aftershocks have been registered after the quake.

USGS earthquake location.

More than 1,100 buildings have been destroyed in Ecuador and
over 800 have been damaged, including more than 280 schools, according
to OCHA.

Ecuador and the United Nations have launched a $72.7 million appeal to
assist the country in dealing with the consequences of the 7.8-magnitude
earthquake. The World Bank has agreed to allocate $150 million to
Ecuador.

According to Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, the damage caused by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake is estimated at $3 billion.

USGS Seismotectonics of South America (Nazca Plate Region)

The
South American arc extends over 7,000 km, from the Chilean margin
triple junction offshore of southern Chile to its intersection with the
Panama fracture zone, offshore of the southern coast of Panama in
Central America. It marks the plate boundary between the subducting
Nazca plate and the South America plate, where the oceanic crust and
lithosphere of the Nazca plate begin their descent into the mantle
beneath South America. The convergence associated with this subduction
process is responsible for the uplift of the Andes Mountains, and for
the active volcanic chain present along much of this deformation front.
Relative to a fixed South America plate, the Nazca plate moves slightly
north of eastwards at a rate varying from approximately 80 mm/yr in the
south to approximately 65 mm/yr in the north. Although the rate of
subduction varies little along the entire arc, there are complex changes
in the geologic processes along the subduction zone that dramatically
influence volcanic activity, crustal deformation, earthquake generation
and occurrence all along the western edge of South America.

Most
of the large earthquakes in South America are constrained to shallow
depths of 0 to 70 km resulting from both crustal and interplate
deformation. Crustal earthquakes result from deformation and mountain
building in the overriding South America plate and generate earthquakes
as deep as approximately 50 km. Interplate earthquakes occur due to slip
along the dipping interface between the Nazca and the South American
plates. Interplate earthquakes in this region are frequent and often
large, and occur between the depths of approximately 10 and 60 km. Since
1900, numerous magnitude 8 or larger earthquakes have occurred on this
subduction zone interface that were followed by devastating tsunamis,
including the 1960 M9.5 earthquake in southern Chile, the largest
instrumentally recorded earthquake in the world. Other notable shallow
tsunami-generating earthquakes include the 1906 M8.5 earthquake near
Esmeraldas, Ecuador, the 1922 M8.5 earthquake near Coquimbo, Chile, the
2001 M8.4 Arequipa, Peru earthquake, the 2007 M8.0 earthquake near
Pisco, Peru, and the 2010 M8.8 Maule, Chile earthquake located just
north of the 1960 event.

USGS plate tectonics for the region.

Large
intermediate-depth earthquakes (those occurring between depths of
approximately 70 and 300 km) are relatively limited in size and spatial
extent in South America, and occur within the Nazca plate as a result of
internal deformation within the subducting plate. These earthquakes
generally cluster beneath northern Chile and southwestern Bolivia, and
to a lesser extent beneath northern Peru and southern Ecuador, with
depths between 110 and 130 km. Most of these earthquakes occur adjacent
to the bend in the coastline between Peru and Chile. The most recent
large intermediate-depth earthquake in this region was the 2005 M7.8
Tarapaca, Chile earthquake.

Earthquakes can also be
generated to depths greater than 600 km as a result of continued
internal deformation of the subducting Nazca plate. Deep-focus
earthquakes in South America are not observed from a depth range of
approximately 300 to 500 km. Instead, deep earthquakes in this region
occur at depths of 500 to 650 km and are concentrated into two zones:
one that runs beneath the Peru-Brazil border and another that extends
from central Bolivia to central Argentina. These earthquakes generally
do not exhibit large magnitudes. An exception to this was the 1994
Bolivian earthquake in northwestern Bolivia. This M8.2 earthquake
occurred at a depth of 631 km, making it the largest deep-focus
earthquake instrumentally recorded, and was felt widely throughout South
and North America.

Subduction of the Nazca plate is
geometrically complex and impacts the geology and seismicity of the
western edge of South America. The intermediate-depth regions of the
subducting Nazca plate can be segmented into five sections based on
their angle of subduction beneath the South America plate. Three
segments are characterized by steeply dipping subduction; the other two
by near-horizontal subduction. The Nazca plate beneath northern Ecuador,
southern Peru to northern Chile, and southern Chile descend into the
mantle at angles of 25° to 30°. In contrast, the slab beneath southern
Ecuador to central Peru, and under central Chile, is subducting at a
shallow angle of approximately 10° or less. In these regions of
“flat-slab” subduction, the Nazca plate moves horizontally for several
hundred kilometers before continuing its descent into the mantle, and is
shadowed by an extended zone of crustal seismicity in the overlying
South America plate. Although the South America plate exhibits a chain
of active volcanism resulting from the subduction and partial melting of
the Nazca oceanic lithosphere along most of the arc, these regions of
inferred shallow subduction correlate with an absence of volcanic
activity. -

April 23, 2016 - AMAZON RIVER - In their most iconic form, coral reefs are found in crystal-clear
tropical waters, not the muddy mouth of a river.

In fact, Patricia
Yager, a oceanographer at the University of Georgia "kind of chuckled"
when a Brazilian colleague, Rodrigo Moura, suggested they search for a
reef in the mouth of the Amazon, The Atlantic reports.

When their team found evidence of a reef there, she told the magazine,
"I was flabbergasted, as were the rest of the 30 oceanographers."

The reef they found is more than 600 miles long and covers 3,600 square miles,
they describe in a study published in Science Advances.

In parts, it's
covered by the silty outflow from the Amazon River only three months of
the year, so that the corals' photosynthetic symbiotes can
photosynthesize at will. In large parts of the reef, though, sunlight is
harder to come by, and those areas are populated by sponges and
carnivorous fish.

The scientists did have a clue that they might find a something of
interest in this area: Moura had found a paper from 1977 in which fish
indicating the presence of a coral reef had been found in the area.

On a
research cruise, the team dredged the ocean floor and came up with
coral, sponges and reef fish. They had found exactly what they were
looking for. - Atlas Obscura.